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Friday, March 14, 2014

Children to Order: The Ethics of 'Designer Babies'

Creating designer babies who are free from disease and super athletic or smart may finally be around the corner.

But American society hasn't fully thought out the ethical implications for the future of baby making or policies to regulate these techniques, an ethicist argues in an article published today (March 13) in the journal Science.

"We're on the cusp of having much more information, and the appearance
of having much greater discretion, in choosing the traits of our
children," said article author Thomas H. Murray, a bioethicist at the
Hastings Center, a nonprofit research center in Garrison, N.Y. People
also need to think about what parents and doctors will do with the
technology, he said. "What use will they make of it, and should there be
limits?"